Editorial: Northeast Ohio - Going Underground

(WOIO) -

You've got to feel for the folks living along the east coast. They lost power - and in many cases, their homes to Hurricane Sandy. Many remain without power and heat even today.

Well, we got a taste of that misery here in northeast Ohio when the back end of Sandy knocked down trees and the power went out for thousands here. Residents in both places soon found out that utility companies are just woefully unprepared to handle such large scale blackouts.

Especially frustrating for residents in the Cleveland area was news that First Energy sent hundreds of Ohio utility crews to the battered east coast in advance of the storm to help out there, apparently ignorant of weather reports that said we, too, were going to get hit.

Well, we wondered if there was a technological solution to keeping the power on when these big storms hit. And, it turns out the answer is yes, it's called burying the lines underground but the cost here would be in the billions.